Rugby Photography

On Tuesday night, Llandovery Rugby Club kindly gave me access to their Principality Premiership match with Pontypool R.F.C at Church Bank.

As mentioned before, rugby is a huge passion of mine, and I have been lucky enough to be given pitch-side access to some games recently for a personal project that I hope will evolve over the next year or so.  As you will see, my sports photography is not the traditional style you see in the newspapers; rather, I am trying to give the images a filmatic fine-art finish.  I try to get all of my professional images to emulate the old film exposures we used to get and I hope that I have succeeded with these images.  You rarely see black and white images these days of modern sports events, but for me, the black and white finish really brings out the emotion and energy of certain shots…..and rugby is all about emotion and energy.

Llandovery won the game 26 – 16.  That score, combined with Glamorgan Wanderers heavy defeat on the same evening preserved their status in the Principality Premiership.

I’d never been to Church Bank before, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  A proper, old-fashioned rugby club in the heart of the community.  I hope to go back again soon.

For the photographers out there, all of these shots were taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mark 4, a EF 70-200 f/2.8 IS L (mark 1) with a 1.4x converter (mark II).  Each and every shot was exposed at ISO 12800.  The ISO handling of the 1D Mark 4 is just incredible – so much so, that I have actually added grain in post processing to get more of a film feel to the images.  It was dark by kick-off, and the pitch was floodlight.  No flash used of course.

As always, any comments are appreciated.

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Also, take a look at:

• Snowdonia National Park ~ A quick iPhone Photo
• Aberystwyth, Constitution Hill
• Snapseed Black and White
• Bristol Rugby v Ulster Ravens Photos
• Canon 1DX Wedding Photography

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